The Percentage Of Working Age Men That Do Not Have A Job Is Similar To The Great Depression

By Michael Snyder, on September 7th, 2016

Why are so many men in their prime working years unemployed? The Obama administration would have us believe that unemployment is low in this country, but that is not true at all. In fact, one author quoted by NPR says that “it’s kind of worse than it was in the depression in 1940”. Most Americans don’t realize this, but more men from ages 25 to 54 are “inactive” right now than was the case during the last recession. We have millions upon millions of strong young men just sitting around doing nothing. They aren’t employed and they aren’t considered to be looking for employment either, and so they don’t show up in the official unemployment numbers. But they don’t have jobs, and nothing the Obama administration does can eliminate that fact.

In a recent report, President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers said 83 percent of men in the prime working ages of 25-54 who were not in the labor force had not worked in the previous year. So, essentially, 10 million men are missing from the workforce.

“One in six prime-age guys has no job; it’s kind of worse than it was in the depression in 1940,” says Nicholas Eberstadt, an economic and demographic researcher at American Enterprise Institute who wrote the book Men Without Work: America’s Invisible Crisis. He says these men aren’t even counted among the jobless, because they aren’t seeking work.

If you look at the inactivity rate for men in the 25 to 54 age bracket, it was sitting at just 8.1 percent in January 2000.

In January 2008, right at the beginning of the last recession, it was sitting at 9.2 percent, and by the end of the recession it had risen to 10.3 percent.

Today, it is sitting at 11.5 percent.

Remember, these are men that don’t even count toward the official unemployment rate. They are not working, but they are not considered to be “looking for work” either.

So what are these men doing?

You may be tempted to think that many of them have decided to stay home and raise the kids as their wives go off to work. But according to NPR, that is not what is happening…

What the missing men aren’t doing in large numbers is staying home to take care of family. Forty percent of nonworking women are primary caregivers; that’s true of only 5 percent of men out of the workforce.

We do have the largest prison population in the entire world by far, and without a doubt that does play a role in these numbers. However, a far bigger factor is the millions of men that have become content being dependents of the federal government. More than 100 million Americans receive money from the government each month, and a lot of people (both men and women) have found that it is just easier to sit back and collect government checks than it is to go out and try to work hard for a living.

But of course the number one factor is the lack of jobs available. I personally know people that have been looking for work in their fields for years and have not been able to get hired. We have a major employment crisis in this nation, and it is only going to get worse in the years ahead as we continue to lose jobs to technology and millions more good jobs get shipped overseas.

And a lot of the “jobs” that have been created during the Obama administration have been very low quality jobs. Since December 2014, we have gained about half a million jobs for waiters and bartenders, but meanwhile we have actually lost good paying manufacturing jobs. If we continue down this road, the middle class will continue to shrink.

In addition to everything that I have just shared, here are some other facts that are pertinent to this discussion…

The economy is far weaker than you are being told, the employment crisis is far worse than you are being told, and as I mentioned yesterday, the stage is clearly set for a new financial crisis of epic proportions.

And if we are going to see markets crash, this time of the year is a good time for it. In fact, CNBC says that history tells us that this is the “worst period of the year for stocks”…

The worst period of the year for stocks has just begun — at least based on market history.

Over the entire 120-year history of the Dow Jones industrial average, Sept. 6 to Oct. 29 tends to be the worst period for the market. And more specifically, the last few weeks of September have been an especially bad time.

Someday when people look back at this time in history, they will not be surprised by how horrific the coming collapse will be. The truth is that anyone with a lick of common sense can see that the greatest debt bubble in the history of the world is going to end badly.

No, what is going to amaze them is that the system was able to hold together as long as it did. It truly is incredible that the debt-based, fiat currency Ponzi scheme that the central banks of the world have been desperately trying to prop up has been able to keep chugging along all the way to the middle of 2016.

Did Bill Clinton try to curtail the H-1B Visa sham and the outsourcing of American jobs? No, and yet the liberal left was silent. Did GWB? No, and yet the RINO’s were silent. Did Obama? No, and predictably the left was again silent. Will Hillary? Of course not. And yet again, the left will remain silent while they cast their votes for her. Will Trump? Who knows? If he doesn’t then he’s no different than the others have been, and Hillary will be, on this issue. But if he does, he will be the ONLY one willing to do so.

The question is, where do YOU stand on foreign workers replacing Americans and the outsourcing of American jobs? You gonna go with the candidate that will continue the status quo or the candidate that might finally end or at least reduce it?

GSOB

Genesis 3:19

All your life you will sweat to master it, until your dying day.
Then you will return to the ground from which you came.
For you were made from the ground and to the ground you will return.

SnodtBlossom

14 After Moses had gone down the mountain to the people, he consecrated them, and they washed their clothes. 15 Then he said to the people, “Prepare yourselves for the third day. Abstain from sexual relations.”

Barry

What does this have to do with anything in this discussion, SnodtBlossom?

Guest

She’s the consummate troll. She knows there are many Christian readers of this site.

SnodtBlossom

40 “A man who has lost his hair and is bald is clean. 41 If he has lost his hair from the front of his scalp and has a bald forehead, he is clean. 42 But if he has a reddish-white sore on his bald head or forehead, it is a defiling disease..45 “Anyone with such a defiling disease must wear torn clothes, let their hair be unkempt,[c] cover the lower part of their face and cry out, ‘Unclean! Unclean!’ 46 As long as they have the disease they remain unclean. They must live alone; they must live outside the camp.

ali

good question

SnodtBlossom

13 “‘These are the birds you are to regard as unclean and not eat because they are unclean: the eagle,[a] the vulture, the black vulture, 14 the red kite, any kind of black kite, 15 any kind of raven, 16 the horned owl, the screech owl, the gull, any kind of hawk, 17 the little owl, the cormorant, the great owl, 18 the white owl, the desert owl, the osprey, 19 the stork, any kind of heron, the hoopoe and the bat.

LIZ THE SHIZ

and do not covert thy boss in the office behind you for his GF and Ex-wife shall smite you

SnodtBlossom

the wife aint quite ex.. she got into a car accident near the office the other day.. i got a yucky vision that boss took up w/the secretary.. and not that i feel outdone, but the thought does yuck me

snob blo me

We don’t really know who or what it is the snob blo me person or it they call themselves these days.

SnodtBlossom

33 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, 34 “When you enter the land of Canaan, which I am giving you as your possession, and I put a spreading mold in a house in that land, 35 the owner of the house must go and tell the priest, ‘I have seen something that looks like a defiling mold in my house.’

GSOB

1 Samuel 2:12

Mondobeyondo

We’re damned. Doomed, too.

Mondobeyondo

America’s best years were from approximately from 1955 to 1963. The defining moment was a sunny November afternoon in Dallas. Things have never been the same since.

McAmerican_100

Ping

Chief ALWAY. TOMOR.

The trend of working age men without a job will continue to rise as long as technology keeps replacing them.

It is quite simple. The pool of workers has gotten so poor companies are driven to look for other alternatives.

In my opinion workers are more to blame than the companies are.

I try to be an asset to my company and stay up to date on all changes and improvements. So far, so good, then again maybe tomorrow will be different.

Remember, no matter how bad or good today is, there’s ALWAYSTOMORROW.

LIZ THE SHIZ

yes and someday we may enter the Star Trek Next Generation society where there’s no need for money , material property and self motivation unless you are a Feranghi

Lazarovic

Workers are to blame? That’s fine. You can pay wages or you can pay taxes and pay for food stamps – your choice.

I get it now. You’re that Always tomorrow person that is now Chief Alway. Sneaky you are!

Tatiana Covington

People are becoming obsolete. I’ve seen this coming since 1961.

jaxon64

Excellent point TC–and not touched on in this article. Many of these jobs simply no longer exist.
True story of an awakening from a few days ago I had……
I had a Dr’s apt early in the AM and then a few errands to run. I stopped at a Dash-In for a self-serve cup of coffee and croissant ( no diner employees needed)…I hit the ATM for some cash on the way out ( no bank teller needed)….I stopped for gas and filled up at the self serve ( no attendants needed)…at the doctor’s office we have self check-in on a touch screen and it scans my insurance card ( no receptionist necessary)…. afterwards I stopped on the way home for some groceries and used a handheld scanner for my groceries as I selected them, paid on my way out at a kiosk ( no cashier needed)…..
The revelation I had was that aside from 5 mins with a doctor, I had run my errands and appointments without human interaction but plenty of interaction with technology which has supplanted jobs…..these jobs ( and millions of others) will NEVER come back as long as there is electricity.

jakartaman

Somewhat true but mostly companies moved to Other countries where labor and taxes are cheap

none

Thank god, president Obama is shutting down all those coal mines. And that worthless electricity.

alan

Once the lights go out its looter time and no one will have seen it coming!

Bill G Wilminton NC

And With No Lights NO One Will See It Going….

surprise!!

There will be periodic flashed of light the the wrong end of a gun.

alan

I lived in Japan for a few years and noticed that most businesses had a lot of extra employees. Most small shops in the US might have one or two employees. In Japan they would have three or four. Customer service was put far above everything else.
I also think this was one of Fords ideas, if people had good jobs they bought stuff.
What the US has done is put profit ahead of everything else and when people don’t have money send the jobs overseas for cheaper labor to make things.

Back in the 1930’s they had work programs building stuff, dams, parks, roads. Now days all you would get is law suits.

randy wellman

should we kill all the lawyers then?

Scott Comin

good. many people would not want those mindless jobs anyway. that revenue needs to be redirected so we all can benefit not just the few who own the technology!!!! GET BACK TO THE LAND AND FARM FARM FARM AND WE WILL ALL HAVE A JOB THAT GIVES LIFE MEANING PROVIDED EACH FAMILY GETS TO OWN SOME LAND.

JC Teecher

I am waiting on a 3D printer so I can start making body parts, as my old ones wear out.
If I can make enough new ones, fast enough, I can go back to Trucking again.

My new CB handle will be the Bionic Rooster..the only Rooster with a 6 million dollar pecker.

LIZ THE SHIZ

you won’t need to be trucking with that 6 million dollar appendage just change the T to F****N

Tatiana Covington

Don’t laugh… people actually are working on exactly this. Google and see.

SnodtBlossom

If the offering to the Lord is a burnt offering of birds, you are to offer a dove or a young pigeon. 15 The priest shall bring it to the altar, wring off the head and burn it on the altar; its blood shall be drained out on the side of the altar. 16 He is to remove the crop and the feathers[a] and throw them down east of the altar where the ashes are. 17 He shall tear it open by the wings, not dividing it completely, and then the priest shall burn it on the wood that is burning on the altar.

ali

How long the magic continues? As long as the printing machines can print the dollar.

LIZ THE SHIZ

and as long as central banks can continue to buy government bonds , yay for helicopter money!

TSA_TheSexualAssault

As long as it takes one barrel of oil to get 10 (and the Dollar is still able to buy gasoline in the cities). When EROI gets below 5 (overall), look out!

chilller

“worst period of the year for stocks”…
These are no longer stocks….they are owned and operated by the US gubermint and manipulated like gov. bonds. Time of the year has nothing to do manipulation…they will do as they please.

Mike Smithy

Very true. There is no market in the traditional sense. Just manipulation.

SnodtBlossom

This story is moot. Men don’t really matter. It’s only working women that matter.

Priszilla

If you reduce waste you need to work less for someone else.

NowAlive

Exactly…and quit being so greedy. I observed with great interest the number of people thrilled about the new iPhone 7 and Watch…who already have the latest iPhone and Watch. I was thinking of it as…you’re “dying” for a new phone that does 99% of what your current phone does (remember when they were just for calls?) and there are people in this country who are selling their bodies to buy drugs for themselves or food for their kids. My own family used to dumpster dive for groceries when when I was very young, when the grocery stores still closed. But you bring another great point. People greedily clamoring are really just another slave.

LIZ THE SHIZ

last night I saw a talking head on TV say the new iphone 7 is out here’s why you should upgrade and the blurr between so called news and commercialism continues

mtntrek3

Technology is a double edged sword. It is a help to us to a point……. ultimately it will enable the powers that be to defeat the working class. Then………. the rich and the poor. IF we were to exist long enough to allow it……. only the top echelon of the financial world would continue to exist. GREED among other of man’s failings would be the cause.

ali

Apple just launched iphone 7. Now everything will be just fine.

TSA_TheSexualAssault

Generation Doom holds up their iPhones and proclaims victory over oil depletion!
Riot—– If they won’t give us everything free!

Paul Vosper

You can not compare 1929 depression / recession in today’s world . there are over 150 million more people in the usa then in 1929 . it is stupid to compare, then and now !!!!! . it’s worst and will not heal ,( no way ) !!! The USA is finished . China is the new powerhouse in today’s world and ,it will only get stronger , CHOPSTICKS ANYONE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! .

Mondobeyondo

It’s not about the population numbers. It’s about economic fundamentals that are in play here. And oh yes, I can play chopsticks on the piano. Heh.

Priszilla

I like Chinese food.

Mike Smithy

Have you ever tried “Cream of sum yung gai”?

LIZ THE SHIZ

I love when people quote the best lines from Wayne’s World

Mike Smithy

Very funny movie, huh. Party on Liz.

LIZ THE SHIZ

SCHWING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Priszilla

My first boyfriend was Chinese. He wasn’t that young anymore. But it was lovely.

GSOB

Ahh…. the belly

Guest

“No, what is going to amaze them is that the system was able to hold together as long as it did.”

Absolutely, Michael. It truly is astonishing.

alan

If its held together this long I suspect they can push this on down the road a ways. They need to come up with 0% mortgages for 360 months. That will get things cooking!

Mike Smithy

I would love to have a no money down, interest only mortgage at -1%.

piccadillybabe

I know in my area in the NE, welfare reform has put a lot of people to work. There are jobs out there but no one wants them as they pay min wage so many feel “why work” if my benefits give me more? With this welfare reform, you cannot collect benefits if you turn down a job because of low pay. Many businesses throughout the summer were going begging to get workers to stock shelves and work the register. Recently, I saw better stocked shelves and more employees working. I think if businesses hire able-bodied welfare workers, the feds help businesses with tax deductions so its a win-win for people and the deficit we have.

jakartaman

This is Hope and Change you can be proud of
Vote Hillary for 4 more years yea!

Seymour Truth

Most of them — or their girlfriends — collect welfare. So they see no need to work. Especially when they have two or three girlfriends.

Our culture has been going down hill for the past 50 years.

LIZ THE SHIZ

the other day on a local Boston TV show I heard some millennial / gen x/y- er say 35-40 is considered old especially when working in a tech firm and they had nicked named a 50 year old Gramps who was working at their firm

sistersoldier

The great recession has created a new climate of “risk aversion” that is now an impediment to the current “why even bother with it” generation. From the false sense of prosperity to the credit bubbles we now live in a time when nothing is certain or guaranteed. Just a lot of unbacked promises of grandeur in the distant future by voices who carry no tangible clout. Kids that are raised during tough economic times are taught to live with less, not to expect too much from our government and to depend on simple creature comforts.

Complacency has disrupted the confidence in the work place and those who are fortunate enough to remain gainfully employed do so with a new sense of apprehension that they are just one or two paychecks away from joining the proverbial “basement dweller” generation.

Trouble chases sinners however God is in the generation of the righteous. America and other nations have corrupted just laws and now force the elect of God to obey those same unjust laws. He is not pleased. Scripture teaches us (those who care about their future) that when we disregard God’s commandments, that our sins will cost a nation much. It is evident of God’s word that no person or nation gets away with sin which is at the root of all of America’s problems. Not following God’s commandments leads to consequences. God is constant, righteous, just, faithful and true and He does not change. Rebellion brings cursings and not blessings. God cursed Adam and Eve and all of their future generations and the earth because of their sin. He cursed Cannaan with slavery because of Ham’s sexual sin. He destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah because of their wickedness and perversion.

As far as politics are concerned, the Lord will also remove qualified, honorable, experienced God approved leadership and He will allow inexperienced, senseless/foolish young folk to lead a nation to their destruction. So no mortal man can change what is written by the hand of God. NO matter how we may pursue them for the answer it is still a “mortal” man/woman with an “immoral solution” because man is corrupt/cursed without Christ and when God is not the one sought even for his or her own counsel they are simply the blind leading the blind. Only individual and national repentance can turn this nation back in the favor of the One who is able to bless it! Or we blow full steam ahead into national ruin as the world watches our demise.

JC Teecher

That, sister soldier, is very well stated and the truth of it all is more than most people are saying.

Well, we are blowing ahead full steam into the smouldering abyss, and the world is already ahead of us. But, not by much, as we are about to pass them with flying colors with billery at the helm.

sistersoldier

That is a painful truth JC Teecher.

GSOB

Psalm 120:6

GSOB

Job 19:25

GSOB

Jeremiah 9:3

sistersoldier

Amen GSOB

Lazarovic

When work doesn’t pay, it doesn’t pay to work; it’s really that simple. American men look around and see jobs fit for teenagers, not them. Why get up and go to work and still have next to nothing at the end of the week? I can do that and just sit at home. When jobs that pay enough to make them worth going to arrive, men will work them. Instead, corporate America and big business is doing everything in their power to AVOID hiring and paying Americans. There’s your trouble, the rich don’t want to pay you anything.

Richard O. Mann

I doubt there will be a future generation to look back on this.

TSA_TheSexualAssault

Some always survive. Post-apocalypse people will breed hard to make up the labor shortage.

DJohn1

The greatest danger we face is the non-working population growth in the last 30 years. It isn’t just men. It is women as well.
So what we really have is society split between the haves and the have nots. That is what makes it dangerous to the haves.
Simply it means the haves better watch their backs.
This is not civilized territory. It is everything but civilized and the law that favors the rich over the poor blatantly is partially to blame. When anarchy reins in our court system then who actually obeys the laws of the land?
We see this happening along racial lines recently. Where people riot violently and steal anything not nailed down.
You have a prison population larger than any other country in the world. Statistically it is a majority of black inmates.
There is a drug problem amongst a lot of those inmates that will not go away.
The other problem is health care. When a system ruins a person financially with the first major illness they have and other countries have went to a national health insurance years ago and do not have that problem we as a country are at fault.
If I worked all my life, gained material possessions only to have it eventually taken away with ruinous health care financially then what use is it to work at all. Especially if the people on welfare are covered by free health care if you make less than a certain amount of money a year.
Under this limited and discriminatory against working people society it simply does not pay to work.
Our entire public education system that goes through K-12 is wrong. It simply does not teach anyone how to make a living. It does not teach them to repair a house gone wrong either electrically or plumbing wise.
It does not prepare anyone for life.
Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic are the basics you should all ready know by the 7th grade.
The more advanced math studies are for people going into higher education type work. Everyone else needs business math and budget math with the rules of thumb built in. For instance you should not have to pay more than 1/4 your monthly income for either a car or a house. Not in today’s world though. That has gone way out of hand.
Our college system is designed to break people financially unless you come from wealth.
We have many people with education loans with no way to pay them back. Yet our Congress betrayed those people by making those loans not part of bankruptcy law.
With ObamaCare we have skyrocketing insurance premiums and a criminal system of deductions that no one can afford.
Yet it is MANDATORY. With fines built into the system.
It was not returned to the Congress as it should have been.
IF it was not voted on as a tax then it is a fraud against everyone working. Because it was not voted on as a tax and our Congress was assured it was not meant to be a tax. That is plain and simple fraud.
Yet the highest court in the land sold us all down the river by allowing it to go into law.
Are we going to have the harshest depression in history? I think you are right there. I think we will. That means those at the top of this house of cards will come crashing down with the rest of us.
Anyone dependent on retail sales will go under.

GSOB

My gut relates with Trump on ISIS, ACA, tax cuts, the military and the VA. Otherwise, more of the same of more of the same,….. currency death in a thousand
cuts.

Eatie Gourmet

I keep reading about our huge prison population… What about China? What about Russia? What about the prison-state of North Korea? You think they factually report their prison-populations? Here prisoners get 3 meals a day, cable tv, A/C, access to libraries, to medical care (often better than the VA provides to veterans), to lawyers…

TSA_TheSexualAssault

Disagree. Women are not dangerous. They will go with the flow and attach to the new system, esp. women of child-bearing age. Older women are mostly harmless.

Idle men are the danger, especially unattached imported Mohammedians.

df NJ

“It’s kind of worse” is an opinion. The greatest danger we face is people ignoring facts that disagree with their ideology as being false while accepting opinions that do agree with their ideology as being facts.

google, “Labor Force Statistics from the Current Population Survey”

Or just be a mindless fear worshiper.

GSOB

Christians are called to give diligence to make their calling and election sure; then they may know that no enemy or deceiver shall ever prevail against them.

That’s God’s promise. Fore, man shall not live by bread alone, but from every word that proceeds out from the mouth of God.

JJR

Never been a better time to live off grid on a self sustaining farm. With today’s technology advancements its very economical to setup alternative water, communications, and electrical systems. The internet has an endless supply of self help video’s to learn everything from veterinary medicine to gardening.

GSOB

When a people, by their sin, make themselves as loathsome carcasses, nothing can be expected but that God should send enemies to destroy them.

LIZ THE SHIZ

don’t worry the NSA will track you down and then comes the drone strike

economy weakest on record

count the millions hidin out in school (professional students),plus the tens of millions working couple days driver uber or delivering pizzas,that number doubles (triples),upside economy now the weakest on record meaning it can’t get any worse lol

Swath

The marxist are close to creating their utopia. Unfortunately, many of us will be on the wrong side of their power structure. This article is a small example of what we are in store for in the near future.

geoffandmarie418@aol.com

This will be perfect reason the elite will use to start exterminating people, people who are not contributing to society in a productive way will be terminated. People who are using precious resources with out contributing are going to be in a world of hurt.

Macrodex

Easy solution: just import more immigrants!

ONLYJB1

a2 + b2 = c4. The simple equation left out of the unemployment figures released by the federal government. Truly, we find our true unemployment figures to range around 28%. But, if the majority of the people were informed of this, there would be riots in the streets! Whether we want to admit it or not is the fact that we have become dependent on the federal government for our existence! All fear to saying anything. To snitch would mean the possibility of losing that government check, government cheese and phone!

allfive

When you post images from the Library of Congress, you must give attribution. Also, a caption would help readers understand historical perspective.

Shelba Herring

Get rid of the freeloading illegals and maybe the men could find a job

TSA_TheSexualAssault

There’s 40M foreign-born Legals in the fUSA and at least as many illegals.

JMiller

There are no where near 40 million illegals in the U.S. More like 20 million.

TSA_TheSexualAssault

Start with 5M in 1985, add no fewer than 1M per year since Reagan 1986 wall-less Amnesty. Consider that they reproduce early and often and you get foreign-cultured military-age adults wrongly-given US Citizenship merely because they were born on magic soil to parents unlawfully present (not under the control of the US Gov’t). There are waaaaaay more than 40M Mexican Culturals present in the ConUS, just look at “live births” and public school enrollment by race.

Best of luck as a “denier”

JMiller

I am not a denier. Did I not say that there are 20 million illegals in this country? I just do not count children born in this country. You do. Also do not forget to account for the millions of illegals that have died since 1985.

PocoPete

“It is interesting to note that Cesar Chavez believed ferociously in the border of the United States — because that border protected his union. So ferociously did he hold this view that the New York Times ran a story detailing an accusation that the union Chavez founded, the United Farm Workers, set up a 100 mile “wet line” to keep “wetbacks” and “illegals” — yes, all of those are Chavez’s words — out of the United States.”

randy wellman

october is a particularly BAD time to invest in the markets, followed by september, november, june, january, july, february, august, march,december,….